I Claimed Social Security at 70 – and Now I Wish I Hadn’t

The conventional wisdom around Social Security has always seemed clear enough. Delay your benefits as long as possible, wait until 70, and watch those monthly checks grow by 8 percent annually after full retirement age. Financial planners have been preaching this gospel for years, and it sounded sensible. Yet here I am, several years into collecting my maximum benefit, wondering if I made the right call after all.

The Math That Seemed So Compelling

Between full retirement age and 70, the annual increase for delaying benefits is 8 percent per year, tax-free. When I first ran the numbers in my mid-sixties, this looked like free money on the table. In December 2022, 64 percent of all retired workers who were receiving Social Security benefits had chosen to begin receiving benefits before their full retirement age, let alone age 70, according to Social Security Administration data. I felt smart for bucking that trend. Only 10 percent were 70 years old. The problem is that what sounds like an 8 percent return is not quite what it appears to be on paper.

The Break-Even Age Nobody Warned Me About

At around age 78 and 8 months, you reach the break-even point, when your cumulative benefits from claiming at 67 surpass those you’d get by taking retirement at 62, and the numbers get even starker when comparing 62 to 70. So if you wait until age 70 to start taking benefits, it would take you until between age 80 and 81 to break even with the benefit amount you’d receive if you started taking them at age 62. At 70, that seemed like a reasonable bet. Now, watching friends enjoy their benefits for years already, I wonder if I outsmarted myself. Meanwhile, the break-even between claiming at 67 and claiming at 70 is around age 82, and the break-even between claiming at 62 and claiming at 70 is around age 80.

Life Expectancy Is Not a Guarantee

The Social Security Administration’s 2023 actuarial life table based on 2020 data gives a life expectancy of 81 years for a 62-year-old male and 84 years for a 62-year-old female. Financial professionals use age 95 as a default assumption when building retirement plans, but reality often tells a different story. Women aged 65 are expected to live to 86.9 years, while men of the same age are likely to reach 84.3 years, according to the Social Security Administration’s life expectancy calculator. The sobering truth is that reaching the break-even age is far from guaranteed, especially for men. Health complications, family history, and simple bad luck can dramatically alter those projections.

The Opportunity Cost of Waiting

Those eight years between 62 and 70 represent a massive amount of foregone income. Based on today’s average monthly Social Security benefit of $2,000, that early claimer would receive a reduced benefit of about $1,400 a month. Over the following eight years, that would amount to $134,400 in total benefits received by the time the person started collecting Social Security at age 70. I spent down retirement savings and investment accounts during those years, money that could have continued compounding had I claimed earlier. Research from the Financial Planning Association suggests that delaying benefits may often not be the best choice. The 8 percent delayed retirement credit sounds attractive until you realize what you are actually giving up.

The Hidden Costs of Depleting Retirement Accounts Early

While I waited to claim Social Security, I drew heavily from my IRA and taxable investment accounts. This created two problems I had not fully anticipated. First, those accounts were invested and had the potential to grow, whereas Social Security money sitting with the government earned me nothing beyond the delayed credits. Second, I triggered taxable events by withdrawing from tax-deferred accounts earlier than I might have otherwise. Less than 10 percent of the approximately 3.4 million people who started retirement benefits in 2022 were at least 70 years old, the age at which you can get your highest monthly payment, according to Social Security Administration (SSA) data. Most people claim earlier for good reasons.

Quality of Life in Your Sixties Versus Your Eighties

There is something nobody tells you about waiting until 70 to claim benefits. Your early retirement years, when you are healthiest and most active, are funded by drawing down your own assets. By the time you hit 70 and start collecting that enhanced benefit, you may not be physically capable of doing the things you dreamed about. Travel becomes harder, health issues crop up, and energy levels decline. According to a May 2023 study by the Economic Policy Institute found that 1 in 2 U.S. workers over 50 have physically taxing jobs, and slightly more than half report working in hazardous or unhealthy conditions. For many, the notion that they can simply work until 70 is unrealistic.

The Flawed Logic Behind the 8 Percent Return

Financial advisors often frame delayed retirement credits as an 8 percent annual return, but research from the Financial Planning Association found this comparison deeply misleading. This seductive conclusion is incorrect. On an annual basis, you are not forgoing $12,000 when you are 67 in order to get $12,960 when you are 68. You are forgoing $12,000 when you are 67 in order to get $12,960 instead of $12,000 when you are 68. The reality is much grimmer. If you die when you turn 69, your effective annual rate of return is negative 92 percent. The return will eventually turn positive as you live more years, but you cannot live long enough for the annual return to be 8 percent.

The Uncertainty of Social Security’s Future

The report highlighted that the projected year for depletion of the combined Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) trust funds is now 2035, one year later than projected in the 2023 report. After 2035, it will be able to cover 77% of payments via payroll taxes collected. While waiting for my maximum benefit, this news has added a layer of anxiety I had not anticipated. According to the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees 2025 report, the OASI Trust Fund is projected to be exhausted by 2033. Without changes, payroll taxes would only cover about 77% of scheduled benefits. If combined with the DI Trust Fund, full benefits could be paid until 2035. Those who claimed earlier have already banked years of payments regardless of what happens next.

When Waiting Makes Sense for Others

There are legitimate scenarios where delaying until 70 remains the smart play. By a strategic decision to have the higher wage earner in the married couple file as late as age 70, the lower wage earner might consider filing early to at least get some Social Security dollars flowing. Then, when the higher earner files, the lower earner could switch from their retirement benefit to a higher spousal benefit and collect it for the rest of their life. For married couples where one spouse significantly outearned the other, waiting preserves a higher survivor benefit. The Society of Actuaries estimates that a couple both reaching age 65 has a 50% chance that one spouse will live to 93. For those with substantial family longevity and excellent health, the math might still work out differently than it did for me.

What I Would Do Differently

In Figure 1, the three starting ages give approximately the same present value for death ages around 84 or 85. Looking back now, I would have claimed somewhere between my full retirement age and 70, perhaps at 68 or 69. This would have allowed me to preserve more of my investment portfolio while still capturing substantial delayed retirement credits. Each year you delay between full retirement age (FRA) and 70, your benefit increases by 8% or 0.66% per month. You do not need to wait a full year for your benefits to increase. The all-or-nothing approach to claiming at 70 meant sacrificing the most active years of my retirement to chase a benefit that only pays off if I live well into my eighties. Please keep in mind that you stopped earning Delayed Retirement Credits at age 70, so your benefit amount will not increase by delaying your benefits beyond 70. The decision felt obvious at the time, but hindsight has revealed blind spots I wish I had recognized sooner.